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AN     ADDRESS 


An  address  before  the  Illinois  Society  of  Oakland,  California  by 
JOHN    T.    BELL 

Along  a  country  road  in  Kentucky,  a  woman  and  a 
little  girl  riding  horseback,  the  horses  also  carrying 
various  articles  of  household  effects;  trudging  beside  them, 
afoot,  a  man  and  a  little  boy.  The  husband  and  father  of 
this  household  never  learned  to  read  or  write,  and  when 
the  lad  reached  the  age  of  twenty-one  his  own  education 
was  limited  to  the  ability  to  write,  read  and  do  simple 
sums  in  arithmetic.  Thus  this  family — -unknown,  illiterate, 
poor  among  the  poor — journeyed  toward  a  new  home  in 
Indiana,  the  bulk  of  their  small  worldly  possessions  having 
previously  gone  forward  by  flat  boat. 

There  was  nothing  of  note  about  this  scene;  doubtless 
it  was  common  enough  in  that  locality  in  1816,  but  that 
little  boy,  dressed  in  a  jeans  suit  that  his  mother  had 
made,  a  hickory  shirt,  and  barefooted,  came  to  be  the  best 
known  and  best  loved  man  in  all  the  world;  to  write  State 
papers  which  now  command  the  admiration  of  the  most 
scholarly  and  cultured;  to  make,  on  the  occasion  of  the 
dedication  of  the  Gettysburg  National  Cemetery,  an 
address  of  two  minutes'  length  which  has  been  character- 
ized as  setting  the  high-water  mark  of  American  oratory; 
to  serve  this  great  Nation  as  its  Chief  Executive  and  con- 
duct it  safely  through  four  years  of  the  bloodiest  war  the 


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world  has  ever  known;  to  strike  the  chains  from  four 
million  bondsmen;  to  die  a  martyr  to  human  liberty;  to 
be  honored  by  a  funeral  procession  sixteen  hundred  miles 
long  and  to  be  mourned  by  millions  with  the  sincere  grief 
which  marks  a  personal  bereavement. 

Two  surprising  things  occurred  in  the  month  of  June, 
1860 — the  holding  of  a  national  political  convention  at 
Chicago,  then  a  town  of  only  109,200  population  on  the 
western  border  of  the  well-settled  States,  and  the  nomina- 
tion by  that  convention  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  a  country 
lawyer  of  Illinois,  whose  only  title  to  fame,  outside  a  very 
limited  circle,  rested  upon  a  series  of  eight  joint  debates 
held  with  Stephen  A.  Douglas  two  years  previously. 

This  nomination  was  received  with  dismay  by  the 
people  of  the  North  and  with  derision  and  sneers  by  those 
of  the  South.  Thoughtful  men  who  loved  their  country 
realized  that  so  grave  was  the  crisis  then  impending  that 
the  highest  order  of  intellect,  the  clearest  vision  and  the 
most  profound  judgment  combined  with  courage  and  forti- 
tude of  the  most  exalted  character,  would  be  required  by 
the  Nation  of  the  one  who  was  to  become  its  Executive 
on  the  Fou/th  of  March  following. 

What  an  appalling  task  it  was  which  confronted  this 
modest,  unassuming,  sad-eyed  man  from  the  prairies  of 
the  West  when  he  reached  Washington  February  23,  1861! 
So  thoroughly  permeated  with  disloyalty  wras  official  life 
at  the  Nation's  capital  at  that  date  that  he  could  not  place 
his  hand  upon  a  single  individual,  high  or  low  in  station, 
and  say:  "Upon  you  I  can  rely."  Inexperienced  in  state- 
craft; with  but  slight  acquaintance  with  the  leaders  of  his 
own  party;  surrounded  by  those  who  received  him  coldly 
or  with  open  expressions  of  contempt;  seven  States 
already  seceded,  with  the  certainty  that  others  would 


follow;  the  entire  military  force  of  the  country  consisting 
of  only  20,000  men;  the  few  ships  comprising  the  navy 
scattered  abroad;  an  empty  national  treasury — surely, 
surely,  never  before  was  burden  so  heavy  placed  upon  the 
shoulders  of  man  as  that  which  Abraham  Lincoln  took  up 
when  he  stood  on  the  eastern  portico  of  the  Capitol  and 
solemnly  dedicated  himself  to  the  service  of  his  distracted 
country. 

Nine  days  after  Mr.  Lincoln's  arrival  at  Washington 
the  Nation  was  electrified  by  an  inaugural  address  the 
equal  of  which  had  never  been  penned.  Courtly  gentlemen 
and  polished  scholars  had  preceded  this  homely  man  in 
his  high  office,  but  never  before  had  the  people  of  this 
continent  been  so  touched  and  thrilled  on  like  occasion 
as  they  were  by  President  Lincoln's  first  inaugural,  and  it 
will  ever  stand  a  model  of  logic,  of  clean-cut  statement,  of 
patriotic  fervor,  of  sympathetic  regard  for  misled  people, 
of  cogent  reasoning,  of  winning  persuasiveness. 

Then  followed,  for  this  simple-minded  man,  four  years 
of  unprecedented  experience;  of  mental  and  physical 
strain;  of  gleams  of  sunshine;  of  days  of  gloom;  of  vic- 
tories wron;  of  disaster  and  defeat;  of  messages  of  cheer; 
of  vicious  assault;  of  confidence  expressed;  of  coldness 
and  distrust;  of  official  jealousies;  of  bitter  antagonisms; 
of  bloody  sacrifices;  of  treasure  wasted;  of  battles  ill- 
planned  and  lost;  of  fraud  and  corruption;  of  exalted 
heroism;  of  cowardice  and  treachery;  of  agonized  appeals 
from  fathers  and  mothers  and  little  children  in  behalf  of 
loved  ones  perishing  in  prisons;  of  death  in  his  own  house- 
hold— the  mere  reading  of  the  record  of  those  four  dread- 
ful, dreadful  years  fills  one  with  amazement  that  this 
tender-hearted  man  should  have  lived  through  an  experi- 
ence so  crushing. 


We  know  that  there  were  times  when  his  soul  cried 
out  for  relief.  A  friend  of  former  years  attended  one  of 
the  Presidential  receptions  and  afterward  related  that  Mr. 
Lincoln  paid  little  heed  to  the  great  throng,  including 
persons  of  the  highest  distinction,  pressing  forward  to 
take  him  by  the  hand.  After  the  reception  rooms  of  the 
White  House  were  cleared  the  President  took  his  friend's 
arm  and  the  two  walked  up  and  down  in  silence.  A 
remark  was  made  upon  Mr.  Lincoln's  evident  depression, 
whereupon  he  grasped  his  friend  fiercely  by  the  arm  and 
exclaimed:  "What  day  is  this?  What  day  is  this?  This 
is  Friday;  this  is  the  day  they  shoot  farmers'  boys  down 
on  the  Potomac  for  going  to  sleep  on  sentry  post!  My 
God,  I  can't  endure  it!  I  can't  endure  it!" 

With  his  keen  sensibilities,  his  loving  heart  which  took 
in  all  mankind,  his  feeling  of  close  kindred  with  the  com- 
mon people,  what  a  shock  it  must  have  been  to  him  to  be 
asked  to  approve  the  findings  of  courts  martial  imposing 
the  death  penalty  upon  Union  soldiers.  At  such  times  he 
took  advantage  of  every  possible  pretext  for  withholding 
his  endorsement.  On  one  occasion,  in  granting  a  pardon 
to  a  deserter,  he  said:  "It  makes  me  feel  rested  after  a 
hard  day's  work  if  I  can  find  some  good  excuse  for  saving 
a  man's  life,  and  I  go  to  bed  happy  as  I  think  how  joyous 
the  signing  of  my  name  makes  him  and  his  family  and  his 
friends."  Upon  being  asked  to  sign  the  death  warrant  of 
twenty-four  deserters,  he  replied:  "There  are  already  too 
many  weeping  widows  in  the  United  States.  For  God's 
sake  do  not  ask  me  to  add  to  the  number,  for  I  won't  do 
it."  On  another  occasion  of  this  character  he  said:  "I 
think  the  boy  can  do  us  more  good  above  the  ground  than 
under  it."  An  application  for  the  pardon  of  a  deserter 
was  presented  to  him  in  a  case  where  the  soldier  had 


previously  displayed  distinguished  courage  on  the  battle- 
field. "Did  you  say  he  was  once  badly  wounded?"  he 
asked.  "Then,  as  the  Scriptures  say  that  in  the  shedding 
of  blood  there  is  remission  of  sins,  I  guess  we  will  have  to 
let  him  off  this  time." 

In  his  relations  with  others  he  was  always  considerate 
and  forbearing.  This  was  shown  in  a  marked  degree  in 
his  intercourse  with  Gen.  McClellan  during  an  entire  year 
of  disaster,  and  appalling  sacrifices,  bringing  the  country 
to  the  verge  of  ruin.  After  the  bloody  battle  of  Fred- 
ericksburg  was  fought  by  Gen.  Burnside  (who  succeeded 
McClellan)  the  leading  officers  of  the  army  of  the  Potomac 
were  in  a  demoralized  condition.  By  appointment,  at 
midnight,  December  31,  1862,  Gen.  Burnside  met  Mr. 
Lincoln  at  the  White  House  and  a  long  and  anxious 
conference  followed.  Then  the  President  wrote  to  his 
military  adviser.  Gen.  H.  W.  Halleck,  requesting  him  to 
visit  the  army  of  the  Potomac  in  its  camps,  investigate  the 
situation,  confer  with  the  officers  and  then  to  direct  Gen. 
Burnside  to  move  forward,  or  direct  him  to  remain  where 
he  was.  "If  you  fail  me  in  this,"  wrote  the  President, 
"you  fail  me  precisely  where  I  feel  that  T  have  a  right  to 
rely  upon  your  military  judgment."  On  the  back  of  this 
paper,  now  on  file  in  the  War  Department,  is  this  endorse- 
ment in  Mr.  Lincoln's  handwriting,  under  the  same  date 
as  the  paper  itself,  January  1,  1863:  "Withdrawn,  because 
Gen.  Halleck  thinks  it  is  too  harsh." 

General  Halleck  did  not  render  the  service  then  asked  of 
him.  but  remained  in  Washington.  Gen.  Hooker  succeeded 
Gen.  Burnside,  fighting  the  battle  of  Chancellorsville, 
which  was  almost  as  disastrous  to  the  Union  as  was  that 
of  Fredericksburg,  and  was  succeeded  by  Gen.  Meade,  who 
commanded  at  the  battle  of  Gettysburg. 


In  the  midst  of  the  disappointments  and  perplexities 
of  the  first  two  years  of  the  war,  what  a  comfort  it  must 
have  been  to  Mr.  Lincoln  to  look  across  the  country  to  his 
own  loved  West  to  the  operations  of  the  army  commanded 
by  an  officer  to  whom  President  Johnson  was  wont  to 
refer,  in  later  years,  as  "that  little  man  Grant";  who  had 
always  obeyed  orders,  had  never  complained  though  often 
treated  with  the  grossest  injustice  by  his  immediate 
superior,  General  Halleck,  who  never  asked  for  re-inforce- 
ments  and  who  never  lost  a  battle.  Grant  was  one  after 
Lincoln's  own  heart,  and  when  the  modest,  unassuming 
man  from  Galena,  Illinois,  stood  before  the  modest, 
unassuming  man  from  Springfield,  Illinois,  on  March  9, 
1864,  in  the  White  House,  to  receive  his  commission  as 
Lieutenant-General  and  commander  of  all  the  armies  of 
the  United  States,  what  a  blessed  feeling  of  relief  it  must 
have  brought  to  the  overburdened  heart  of  the  President 
to  know  that  at  last  he  had  found  a  man  who  would  lift 
from  his  own  shoulders  a  great  part  of  their  burden. 

Ours  is  a  Christian  Nation  and  Abraham  Lincoln  was  a 
Christian  President  of  that  Nation.  Beginning  by  asking 
the  prayers  of  hs  fellow  citizens  at  Springfield  when  he 
bade  them  good-bye  on  starting  to  Washington,  he 
expressed,  on  every  suitable  occasion,  his  reliance  upon 
God.  In  all  of  his  State  papers,  in  his  correspondence,  in 
military  orders,  in  congratulatory  addresses,  fitting  refer- 
ence was  ever  made  to  the  power  of  the  Almighty  and 
confidence  expressed  in  His  goodness,  justice  and  mercy 
in  dealing  with  this  people.  On  the  eve  of  the  battle  of 
Antietam,  in  September,  1862,  he  promised  his  Maker  that 
if  \.ctory  should  come  to  the  Union  arms  he  would  iss-ue 
a  proclamation  abolishing  human  slavery  in  the  rebellious 
States,  and  this  promise  was  followed  by  the  immortal 


Emancipation  Proclamation,  which  took  effect  January  1, 
1863.  Speaking  of  the  battle  of  Gettysburg,  he  said  to 
General  Sickles:  "In  the  stress  and  pinch  of  the  cam- 
paign there  I  went  to  my  room  and  got  down  on  my 
knees  and  prayed  Almighty  God  for  victory  at  Gettys- 
burg. I  told  Him  that  this  was  His  country  and  that 
the  war  was  His  war,  but  that  we  really  couldn't  stand 
another  Fredericksburg  or  Chancellorsville,  and  then  and 
there  I  made  a  solemn  vow  that  if  He  would  stand  by  the 
boys  at  Gettysburg,  I  would  stand  by  Him,  and  He  did, 
and  I  will." 

We  can  take  great  satisfaction  in  knowing  that 
President  Lincoln  lived  to  see  the  Civil  War  practically 
ended;  that  he  walked  the  streets  of  the  late  capital  of  the 
Confederacy  surrounded  by  black  men  and  women  and 
children  who,  with  streaming  eyes,  sought  to  touch  the 
hand  or  kiss  the  garment  of  one  who  was,  to  them,  God's 
own  Instrument  and  direct  representative;  that  he  heard 
from  the  lips  of  the  Great  Captain  the  story  of  General 
Lee's  surrender,  and  that  he  received  the  heartfelt  con- 
gratulation of  the  people  of  the  Northern  States  over  the 
approaching  end  of  his  great  task. 

In  a  Chicago  paper  was  printed  an  illustration  of  the 
marvelous  growth  of  that  city.  Beginning  with  a  mere 
speck  to  typify  the  population  of  seventy  persons  in  1830, 
a  little  larger  dot  illustrates  that  of  4,479  in  1840;  then 
the  figure  of  a  pigmy  is  employed  to  indicate  the  relative 
size  of  the  population  ten  years  later,  the  pigmy  increasing 
in  proportion  as  the  decades  pass  until,  with  the  census  of 
1896  showing  a  population  of  a  million  and  three  quarters, 
a  great  giant  stands  as  the  representation  of  this  later 
period.  So  may  be  illustrated  the  life  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 
Begun  in  obscurity,  in  direst  poverty,  a  youth  passed 


under  conditions  tending  to  debase  rather  than  to  elevate, 
with  no  encouragement  from  those  about  him  to  gain  an 
education  or  improve  his  condition,  he  slowly  grew  as  the 
years  went  by,  developing  the  worthier  qualities  of  human 
character  and  bravely  meeting  every  responsibility,  until, 
finally,  he  stood  before  the  world,  the  noblest  man  this 
earth  hath  known  since  the  Savior  of  mankind  put  off 
mortality. 

"Heroic  soul,  in  homely  garb  half  hid 

Sincere,  sagacious,  melancholy,  quaint; 
What  he  endured,  no  less  than  what  he  did, 

Hath  reared  his  monument  and  crowned  him  saint." 


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